The Hjemstad Line
Cheers Cheers

I have the notion of putting a "junk pile" in the roundhouse area...Seeing that shack, I think it will add a lot of "character" to the junk.... Goldth
Thanks for posting... Thumbsup
Gus (LC&P).
Reply
Progress on Vigdis' diorama continues, now she's started scratchbuilding the trestle. All the ties are cut out from a larger piece of styrene, and lightly sanded to get a wood grain like surface. So much for the "Not in a million years will I do scratchbuilding, it's way too difficult!" statement she gave me a while back Smile

[Image: 2044_w1200.jpg]

As for my own progress, well... I finished wiring the first section about a week ago, but when I checked all the connections with an ohm-meter I found a couple of bad spots, which means I have to do some of it over again. I also discovered that one of the accessory switches to the turnout motors had died while the layout was in storage (don't ask me how :? ), so I'll have to rip it out along with the motor and replace it with a new one. That kinda killed the enthusiasm for a while, so instead I've downloaded and installed Apache web server with MySQL and PHP, trying to learn Joomla for my new web site.

Svein
Reply
Yesterday I finally got around to fixing the curve on which my biggest engine shorts. That curve is the absolute minimum recommended radius for the engine, and it's also superelevated and ends directly in a curved turnout, so it has to be spot on in order to function flawlessly. First I loosened the track and repositioned it, only to move the problem area onto the curved turnout. I then ripped up all the old flex track and replaced it with a new piece, taking extra care when forming the curve, and testrunning the engine on the curve several times while the glue was drying. Finally, the third attempt nailed it! 2285_

I also got the wiring fixed, and finished on the underside today. Luckily I didn't have to replace the switch, as it's glued to the turnout motor. I removed the motor/ switch assembly from the turnout, opened the switch and increased the tension of the copper plate inside, that fixed the bad connection.

[Image: 2058_w1200.jpg]

Meanwhile, Vigdis' work on the trestle for her diorama continues.

[Image: 2059_w1200.jpg]

Svein
Reply
Oops, almost forgot about this thread..! Well, there's not much to report anyway. My most recent work is in my 2012 resolution thread, so I won't bore you with duplicate posts here.

However, I got a new addition to my engine roster today, an NMJ Superline brass model of the NSB Class 18c #246:

[Image: 2142_w1200.jpg]

[Image: 2144_w1200.jpg]

[Image: 2145_w1200.jpg]

[Image: 2146_w1200.jpg]

[Image: 2148_w1200.jpg]

The wheels on the leading trucks are a little smaller than the prototype, to allow a minimum radius of 600mm (24"). Correctly sized wheels are enclosed, but apparently they require a 1500mm (60") radius, so I don't know if I ever get to use them.

Svein
Reply
Sweet! Thumbsup
Reply
This locomotive is lovely! Is it a norwegian prototype? It looks like a crossover between american and european locomotive.

Matt
Proudly modelling Quebec Railway Light & Power Company since 1997.

Hedley-Junction Club Layout: http://www.hedley-junction.blogspot.com/

Erie 149th Street Harlem Station http://www.harlem-station.blogspot.com/
Reply
Yes, it's a Norwegian prototype. Class 18 is kind of interesting in that it was partly developed by Hartmann in Germany, which makes it a crossover between the traditional British construction in our earlier engines, and the more continental style, and was an important step in the process of developing the typical Norwegian style steam engines.

Class 18 came in three versions (a, b and c), and the first eight engines were built by Hartmann. Later there were built 27 engines at Hamar Jernstøberi in Norway, for a total of 35 engines of this class. The a and b versions were later upgraded to version c.

#246 was ordered in August 1911, and built by Hamar. It was delivered on June 16 1912, and was retired on January 8 1960.

Svein
Reply
As you may remember, I'm planning to build a railway ferry connection based on the Rjukan Line stations Mæl and Tinnoset (page 1 in this thread). I have plenty of pictures, but no measurements of the apron and towers, which all need to be scratchbuilt. A friend on a Norwegian forum came to rescue yesterday. He is building the exact same ferry connection, including the ferry itself, and was kind enough to e-mail me his correctly sized drawings of both the apron and the tower. Thanks Øystein! Thumbsup

Here's a link to his work log (sorry, Norwegian only) with lots of pics.

Svein
Reply
Now that the Resolution Challenge is over, I guess it's time to revive this thread and get on with some other stuff. I installed my first sound decoder today, in my Di3 diesel engine, and of course I had to try it out now that my layout is actually functional. Man, I had almost forgotten how fun it could be, I unpacked 13 cars and placed on the layout, and spent nearly an hour just switching the cars around the station and assembling a small freight train! Big Grin 2285_

Svein
Reply
Beautiful model!
Gord Schneider
Port Credit, Ontario
President and Chief Engineer
Kootenay Lakes Steam & Navigation Co. Ltd.
Reply
Made my first video today, you can find it here. It's rather long (about 10 minutes), guess I got a little carried away while playing around and switching cars. Sorry about the quality, we don't have a video camera so I just used the film setting on my girlfriend's compact camera. Also, the file is quite big (163MB, but since this was my first time shooting and editing a video I'm not familiar with the different compression techniques yet.

Svein
Reply
Got started on the shelf for the staging yard today. The shelf is 215cm (about 7') long, and the yard will have 4 staging tracks plus one engine storage track. Since this will only be temporary, I've decided to cut down the wiring to a minimum, and rely on the joiners to feed the staging tracks. The engine track will have to be wired, as it goes in the other direction (to the right in front of the yard ladder, you can see it on the printout under the tracks).

[Image: 2359_w1200.jpg]

[Image: 2363_w1200.jpg]

The strange supports for the upper shelf is the result of drilling a bunch of holes in the wall, after repeatedly ripping the whole thing down when checking if it was securely fastened. I thought the wall was concrete which apparently it was not, and the darned thing wouldn't hold any kind of fasteners..! Wallbang

Svein
Reply
Finally got around to watching this (work has been kinda crazy lately). Lovely to see switching on your sections, and staging - looks like you will be ready for an ops session soon ! :-)

Smile,
Stein
Reply
Thanks, Stein, hopefully it won't be too long now Wink

I still have some work to do before I can have a real ops session though, mainly with the rolling stock. They all have the Märklin style hook and loop coupling, and none of them are adjusted to each other. Which means they are of varying height and doesn't couple very well, and some of them are also a little too low, snagging on some of the spring covers on the turnouts. In addition, some of the cars need a little more weight to run better.

I intend to replace all the couplers with FREMO style wire couplers, but this will take some time. For now, I'll just deal with the most troublesome cars and accept some tinkering along the way.

Svein
Reply
I've been spending some time trying to learn Joomla CMS for my own personal web page, and have made a bilingual site (Norwegian/English) that I uploaded today at http://www.hjemstad.no. Not much content yet, but the overall structure, menus and a guestbook are in place. Feel free to take a look, I'll appreciate any comments and constructive critics.

Svein
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)